


Two Can Keep a Secret...

by runners345ready



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: F/M, Many other characters mentioned - Freeform, S2M36 references, mentions of canon character deaths, no major spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5694559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runners345ready/pseuds/runners345ready
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a traitor in Able, probably one of Sam's runners. An operation puts a target on the back's of three and Sam doesn't want to believe that it's any of them. That is until he notices that Five seems to be hiding something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Can Keep a Secret...

**Author's Note:**

> Probably lots of typos, I'm sorry.

It was a... crazy idea. Why would this plan be expected to work anyways? Van Ark could have be watching or listen by any number of means. This didn't imply that any of his runners was actually a spy. He knew who Janine suspected. It was only natural he supposed. Of the three they narrowed it down to, she'd been the most recent arrival. And, he had to admit, almost everything about her arrival had been suspicious. But... I couldn't possibly be Five... Though, if not Five, who?

He's at the gates when the runners come in. No one's particularly happy with the mission, he can tell by the looks on their faces. The three suspected runners look especially distraught. What's worse, they're eyeing each other warily. God, this is going to create a witch-hunt.

He looks at Five, the runner he's trusted so completely. Someone he's been through so much with. His heart nearly stops when he sees Five slip something into her pocket.

Sam's still in shock when the runners move further into Able. What was it? Did he imagine it? He should tell Janine, maybe go all the way up to the Major. But it couldn't possibly be Five, could it?

\-------

It was probably stupid, going alone the Five's tent after dinner. Considering what he suspects, it's down right dangerous. But... he has to be sure before he says something that might get someone he considers a friend executed.

He can't exactly knock on the door at a tent, so he awkwardly clears his throat and starts to ask for Five by name.

Five pushes open the flap of the tent. She stares at him, silent and considering like she often is.

"Hey Five, weird mission today, huh?" He attempts to say lightly. It doesn't really come out that way.

Five nods slowly, the stone-wall expression something he's grown used to.

"You know, I..." He hesitates. "I don't want to believe any of you could possibly be... betraying us."

She remains blank-faced.

"Five, I saw you put something in your pocket after coming in." She stiffens, and his heart starts racing. "What was it, Five?"

Five looks away, and the cold expression that normally seems like part of her personality and generally harmless, suddenly seems like the expression of someone who would be willing do anything they need to.

"It was nothing, Sam. But I promise you, I'm not betraying Able." And he wants to believe her, but would Janine take a suspect just by their word?

"So I'm supposed to just believe you?" He questions carefully.

"Sam, I..." She trails off. "Okay, it's stupid but..." She reaches into her pocket and Sam stiffens slightly, fearful of what he'll discover once Five makes the reveal.

Five holds a small wallet in her hand, an object that hasn't been given much attention since the end of the world.

"I collect these," Five says slowly.

"Um..." He starts questionably. Five sighs, looking slightly sheepish.

"It's not the wallet, or the money..." She hesitates, then lets it fall open. "I keep the pictures: IDs, family photos, kid's school pictures." She gently touches the small photo in the slot of a smiling little girl. "Lot of people turned near the beginning, so they still have them, but others keep the important photos long after this started. People they haven't found, people they lost; I mean, I can't know for sure but..."

He lets the silence hold (for this is an uncommon time where he does not really having something to say) and waits for Five to continue.

"You once said, 'with so many people gone, who's left to remember you?' And, that's one of my biggest fears. I'm sure it can't be just me. So if I have time, after I've had to put a zomb down, I try to find the wallet or any pictures they thought important enough to keep." She turns the wallet to look at the picture. "I know it's stupid, with everything that's going on and Van Ark..."

"No, it's not. I don't think so at all. I think it's really..." He struggles for a word. "Really cool of you," He finishes lamely.

"No, it's dumb. It just... it's stupid. But I want to try to preserve as much as I can from what we've lost. It's not much, but it's... It's just not much."

"I don't think it is at all, Five." She offers a tiny smile but then looks away. Silence holds for a while. "Could... Could you show me some of the pictures?" He asks.

"Sure. Come on in." She slides into the tent, leaving him to push the tent flap aside himself to follow. After a moment's hesitation, he does follow.

The tent is small, because... it's a tent. Five has a neatly laid out sleeping bag on the floor, and not much else. No one really has a lot of personal possessions now. But Five does have a rickety side table with a few objects. Paper drawings from the kids, a battered paperback book, and a large, black binder. This Five picks up and holds towards Sam.

He looks at it and she prompts him to take it. Slowly, he takes it and glance at her as if asking permission. She just raises her eyebrows at him, waiting.

Flipping open the binder, he finds plastic sleeves of a random variety. Some look like they are meant to hold baseball cards, and some could hold a full sheet of paper. All of them are full of pictures and identification pieces. He flips through, page after page of people. People who are now probably dead.

"Like I said, it's stupid." Five folds down to sit on the sleeping bag. "Got the wallet from a guy this afternoon after me and Eight had to split up. I just happened to see that the corpse had that on him. Only took a second, but it was probably a delay I shouldn't have risked. It was an important mission. Or, at least, I thought it was."

"How did I not know you did this?" He asks, continuing to flip through.

"I haven't exactly advertised it." Five shrugs, drawing her knees towards her chest. "Just take a second, grab what I can. It's kinda creepy, isn't it? Looting bodies?"

"Not at all. Okay, maybe it is a little weird. But everything is weird now, isn't it?" He looks up from the binder to see Five smiling softly at him from the ground. "Can I sit down?" He gestures to the ground with the binder.

Five nods and pats the spot on the sleeping bag next to her. That's not exactly what Sam had in mind, but he can't find the words to deny the request.

He sits down and scoots oddly to be next to Five. Continuing through the binder, he carefully looks at every face. Five is looking over his shoulder and when she suddenly lays her head on his shoulder, he becomes highly distracted by the feeling of her hair on his cheek.

One of the pictures actually has a familiar face, and it's enough of a shock to take his mind away from Five's proximity.

"Is that Runner Ten?" Sam questions, pointing at the picture.

"Mm-hm, I got it from his house for him. I think that's Veronica." Her eyes are trained on the picture. "There are some people I really wish I had pictures of. Six, Jasper, Lem, Archie..." Five sighs, warm breath pressing on Sam's collarbone and doing a remarkable job of reminding Sam of the closeness. 

Has anyone been this close to him since Day Zero? He can't remember an instance. Though he's not exactly thinking at his best at this moment.

"I miss them," Five whispers, barely more than a breath.

"Yeah," Sam whispers. "Me too." Damn anyone who suspects Five. There's no way someone so... There's no way Five would betray anyone. Of that, he more sure of now than ever.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't get enough Sam Yao. I hope the rest of you feel the same. I, for one, think Sam and Five are really close outside of missions. Is there romantic interest from either of them? I don't know! And it kills me. I have gotten to... certain parts in Season Four involving my favorite radio operator and I just need to get some less stressful Sam feels out of my system. My heart is aching.


End file.
